Talking to friends recently the conversation turned to
playing board games with children, then to playing chess with children. School chess clubs have built in number over
the last few years and are very popular.

Apart from the ‘do you let them win’ question (see ‘Do You
Let Them Win’ 22 April 2014) the other topic was ‘do games like chess relate to
life’? Is it really useful to play games
as a prelude to growing up and to adult life?

One of my friends suggested chess strategy could be used in
day to day activities, by which he meant clear thinking, having a plan and an
achievable goal. Another friend in the
group said that his son used his football strategies to play chess. Not sure how that works as I’m not involved
with football, but it did sound like a plan of action to work from. Better than no plan!

So, strategies and planning can be a part of childhood, part
of growing up and part of adult life. But just as there are two players in chess and one wins and
one loses, not all plans or strategies are successful! Adapting a plan is key and may have to be
done many times as your opponent changes their game plan.

In our experience with a business there have been many alterations
to the original business plan, marketing plans and day to day operational
plans. Activity Chest is now 10 years
old and in that time many ideas have got no further than the thinking stage, or
‘The Big Plan’ got changed as soon as an unexpected element turned up when
reality kicked in and made a huge difference.
But always there is a plan and you adapt and change many
times to integrate new things into the existing plan and change course to get
to the end goal - just like that chess game!

So maybe chess strategies and learning to win AND lose are
all highly relevant to real life.